Discrete Optimization for Urban Planning and Mobility

Catalog description

The course is organized around five major case studies on the use of discrete optimization and data (AI at large) for smart cities. Namely, 1) bike sharing, 2) bus transportation planning, 3) fairness in ambulance allocation (and police patrol), 4) downed tree reporting (NYC Department of Parks and Recreation), and 5) parcel delivery.The teaching is structured to provide three levels of understanding: a first level in which the problem is presented with its importance, impact, and characteristics. The need of a tech-based quantitative approach is claimed and justified. A second level in which, a high-level version of the algorithmic approach used to solve the problem is presented. A third level, dependent on students' interest and knowledge, in which the algorithmic approach is detailed.